Midnight Pub
i fought the web and...i won ^¥^
~wolfinthewoods
browsing reddit/in the hot sun/
i fought the web and/i won
i fought the web and/i won
well...
i finally did it
i defeated the internet
battered heaps of the aluminum frames
of aws servers lay in disarray before me
you may not even see this post...
okay, but really
i finally did something i'd been wanting to do
for a looooong time
for the past five years i've been acutely aware
of the web's demand on my attention
and in that time have taken pains
to lessen that influence dramatically
two decades ago i was going to uni for comp sci
and through that time until about five years ago
i was
\__--| H O O K E D-IN--
\
gaming
coding
browsing
streaming
assignments
everything at the altar of the screen
and then
i had an epiphany
if i go into comp sci as a career
and i play games
and stream
and also use a smartphone
...the VAST proportion of my day will have been spent
on one screen or another
constantly hooked into the digital world
it repulsed me
i actively resisted it
BUT
it's allure was still somewhat irresistable
i gamed
steamed
did comouter work
just to a lesser degree, but still very much engaged
flash forward to yesterday
i finally broke the camel's back with a two by four
initially i wrote out a long journal piece
(which will go on my gemlog soon)
about my history with the internet the past 20 years
i wrote down a lot i had been already thinking for
a long while
and then, later last night
i just had it
the overwhelming urge towards novelty
finding rabbit holes
incessantly finding and downloading content
that i may or may not ever get around to
I deleted EVERYTHING
and not the way i had done in the past
looking at what i had to make a log so i could
potentially grab it again in the future
i just said to hell with it
bookmarks
GONE
ebooks
GONE
comics
GONE
games
GONE
the only thing i DID keep was my music
which i actually do listen to all of quitw frequently
the thing is
i know where to find
anything i could need at any possible moment
but when it's just sitting there,
on my phone
on my hard drive
it juat creates an itch in the back of my head
that 'you really nees to read xyz sometime'
fuck a backlog
it's back to the good old days
where the web could still surprise me
and tantilize
before i was so obsessed at finding everything
i could
ALL the time
and it's so relieving
so this morning i embraced the chaos
went ob marginalia search and found a new
little site that i wouldn't have
if i'd still been shackled to my bookmarks
it's a cool page with a bunch of french music albums streaming
(and i love french music)
here it is, enjoy
https://play.dogmazic.net/index.php
gemini://wolfinthewoods.pollux.casa/
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inquiry
I'm slowly moving toward approaching life in general as you describe, which to me means being unaware of anything/everything but my surroundings this moment, and responding/reacting to such naturally, by which I mean without thought, especially the thought that I'm a free-willed person doing some free-willing. Rather, I want those responses/reactions to seem part and parcel of all the rest, as though I'm "being lived", in a manner of speaking.
As usual, words are pathetically inadequate....
(And, yes, I know I still owe you an example of my old Olympia typewriter typeface... but, see, the task pipeline my wife keeps overfilling keeps piping me in the shin....)
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detritus
為無為, have you ever read the Zhuangzi?
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inquiry
Never even heard of it. Found a pdf online. Massive. Eyes glazed over quickly.
Could you possibly enumerate what you consider its main points/teachings?
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detritus
You know, I am not even sure!
I should read it again :-)
[edit] not that I even read the whole of it. Maybe this time...
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inquiry
I think a lot of my minimalism the last decade - or whatever it's been - was in no small part inspired from slowly discovering more efficient ways of stating what "brings me there", so to speak. So despite the text you referenced allegedly being a major Taoist work, the fact it appears to be of a length that would take me the better part of what remains of my life to finish turns out to be something I take as "a sign" it's not for me.
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detritus
Honestly, I agree. The book is full of fables that are all but straightforward, and requires an appreciation of chinese culture for a more adequate comprehension.
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wolfinthewoods
same
although there are
still things hard not to pay attention to
like genocide
but
i try not to get
too hooked into the
media-o-sphere
bad for one's mental state
and a sense of agency over yourself
like you're on some
`°•mANiC rOLleRcOaSt€r¡•°´
with methed-out schizophrenic
please just let me off
oh hot damn
what do i pay these bulgarian trolls for?!
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inquiry
I can't tell you how honored I feel to regularly read you and tffb in this "place".
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detritus
Congratulations on the big victory!
I still have all my ebooks in my hard drive.
For me it's different, though, I NEED them.
Just kidding, I don't really need them. In fact, I long for the day I read from the Big Book of Nature.
It could be any time.
But I choose to postpone it.
To build up knowledge,
to learn all I could learn about the world:
A bit of history,
a number of languages,
something or other here and there.
I quite like reading, I have a number of books that I ABSOLUTELY will read.
I am engaging in a study of magic
mysticism
alchemy.
I know it won't last forever.
The day will come when I will be ready to do away with all those books, and then I will just have a few books, those books that shall be good for a lifetime.
I will BUY them in paperback. I will cherish their physical form.
And I won't be needing any screen.
I won't be needing any screen.
For the time being, I appreciate the immateriality of ebooks, the huge library of background knowledge which will coalesce in the back of my mind. I learn to unlearn all that I was fed from childhood.
All those ideas about liberalism
of money
of modernity
Whatever the fuck. One has to read a lot to shed those dying shells of ideas.
Knowledge is all I seek, it's the only kind of wealth I know of.
That and the wealth of Nature.
* * *
Sorry for copying your style, wolf. Somehow, it sticks.
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wolfinthewoods
haha
well, they say imitation is
the sincerest form of flattery
so i'll choose to flatter myself
yeah
i dabble a bit in the mystic spheres
there was a lot
that i had a hard time
parting with
although
having hall's secret teachings of all ages in print
much more satisfying
i want one of the early
musty and old
hardcover editions
in fact it's going to be fun searching for
old occult booka in print
like some sort of nick cage
sneakibg into secret society libraries
(more likely some
frail old man's disorganized
hole in the wall bookshop)
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inquiry
I propose we all start referring to that style as "wolfing it"!
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detritus
Wolf style, and 'wolfing it', it's going to become one of my favorite tools in my stylistic arsenal!
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inquiry
We could also call it merely "wolfing" as a weird sort of side nod to the notion of "rolfing" (not that I know anything about it, espouse it, etc.).
(No idea how/why that came to mind.)
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tffb
On words and syntax
Form and prose
Perhaps a poet corner
A backroom of the pub, half open and separated by half bar
A new wing
Past the pool table middle rooms
Before the EXIT to cat-filled alley
A few seats and small tables
Soft, gentle smoke gliding through the air
Exhaling relief of/from the world
To have espresso or a heavier beverage
An homage to Horace
Making words for expression and wisdom
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inquiry
I'd like to see some bad 1970's paneling in that backroom.
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